Denis Donoghue

Who is Denis Donoghue?

Denis Donoghue is an Irish literary critic. He is the Henry James Chair of English and American Letters at New York University.

He was born at Tullow, County Carlow, into a Roman Catholic family, and was brought up in Warrenpoint, County Down, Northern Ireland, where his father was sergeant-in-charge of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. He was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in Newry, County Down. He studied Latin and English at University College, Dublin, graduating in 1949; and then at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He completed a doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1957, and returned to Dublin, becoming a professor at UCD. Since the late 1970s he has been a professor at New York University.